The Gastrocast

Gastrocast #41 is here. The Beetroot episode. Three different recipes for the price of none–roasted beets, pickled beets (ah, now, I know what your thinking, but it’s worth it. . . .), and a Winter Country Soup with Beets.

If you’ve never eaten beets since you were forced to as a child, or you simply “hate” beets–it’s high time to give them another try!

Links from the Show:

IACP
Savoring the Whole Hog Blog
Earth Friendly Marketing Bag–it helps support the show.

Flickr photos

Music in the Show:
Intro and inbetweens: People podcast by Natives of the new Dawn
Outro: Run Rabbit/The Chase by BRAIN BUCKIT

UPDATE 1/18/06: Something happened the day this show as launched and it did not appear. Something to do with the hit the ‘net is taking due to podcasts I should think. For some reason this show never made it into certain feeds. This is an attempt to resend it.

Technorati Tags: gastrocast, podchef, cooking, food, culinary podcast, beetroot, iacp, soup, whole hog

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Popularity: 4% [?]

In line with my comments below and my Special Edition Gastrocast, I found this post.  This really is a great idea if you don’t have the space or time to raise one on your own–Adopt a Pig! And be rewarded with lovely hams, bacon, and meats. This is common in my community to some extent–we tend to buy meat on the hoof the minute it becomes available. The USDA allows you to buy any part of a whole animal–quarter, half, whole–alive and then it is yours once it is butchered. But it has to be sold to you while alive to bypass the rules about processing. You then pay for cutting and wrapping and you have some of the best meats available.

I wish many of you lived closer to me and I would show you what I mean–I’m ordering chickens this week. Real chickens. Believe me there is nothing better than a farm fresh chicken–although, I can’t stomach eating them on slaughter day. . . .besides, they’re much better after resting a day in the fridge anyway, right?  There is nothing more disgusting than going to a chicken "plant"–I have been to one to buy "fresh" chicken for a large event. The smell, the sights–ugh! Now I just go there for dog food and even then it is disgusting. It only takes about 5 minutes from live, confined caged bird to table ready at one of these places. Enough said. . . .

I am also trying to work on finding some space for piglets. The problem here is most farmers only give them  a few hundred square feet each. I believe they should have an half acre each to really enjoy their short life, and provide us with the best quality and flavor of meat. They should have a mix of woodland and field to tear around in and a diet varied and rich with natural foods, and vegetables. Too often, even on small farms, pigs are relegated to a small corner of the yard and fed only on cereal grains and cooked food scraps. BORING. They should eat nothing cooked–especially meats, and should have plenty of vegetables, roots, bugs as well as their pig feed. Then in the fall they should have apples and nuts for a finishing flavor you can’t beat.

I’m working on it. I’ll let you know how it goes.

UPDATE: I won’t be getting any of these pigs–it’s just wrong!  There’s green pork, but this is going too far.

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. . .And by opposing, end them.

A Gastrocast Special Edition–Some thoughts–actually a rant set to music–about the proposed NAIS plan.

Please check out this and these about the USDA’s weakening of what Organic means.

I’m not some psycho activist, really. I’m just a guy who believes a Democracy is a rule by the people and should remain that way. Anything else, especially Fascism and Totalitarianism, does not belong in the democratic state. The centralization of our food supply smacks of both and will bring ruination upon our Nation. Check it out and get back to me.

UPDATE 1/18/06: Something happened the day this show as launched and it did not appear. Something to do with the hit the ‘net is taking due to podcasts I should think.  For some reason this show never made it into certain feeds. This is an attempt to resend it.

Popularity: 4% [?]